I used to have a manger at A.G. Edwards who kept ALL of the good walk-ins for he and his son-in-law.  Pretty screwed up situation.  I left for Merrill Lynch.  I couldn't disagree more about "having a producing manager is better than a non-producing manager that constantly wants to offer "helpful" advice." 

I now have a manager whose only concern is getting brokers to grow their business.  At A.G., my manager was only concerned about putting money in his own pocket.

Good response - my guess is that it is probably (like many things in this business) more of a function of the manager than the firm as such. 

I don't work for ML (or AGE for that matter), but one of their branches in this area just about fell apart when a non-producing manager showed favotism toward a particular broker.  The result was a branch that lost over $250M in assets when a bunch of the irritated brokers jumped.

It's great that you have a good manager and mine is actually good also.  The only thing that annoys me is the cherry-picking issue.

Ditto mrad.

I worked for  AGE and experienced  the same bs described
above. Also heard from brokers at other branches  that  had
the same stories.

Same happened at the ML office I was in...Branch Manager and his team got 1st dibs on all the clients, especially when folks moved and wanted someone local, or a broker left, washed out, or was fired and left his clients.

Pretty sweet deal if you're the branch manager.

Yep, I had a manager that when advisors left he would reassign all the good clients to his non-producing book if they had alot of money or were C shar clients. Now, after building a nice book of clients he has never met. He is going back to production, due to the fact that he is not a good manager and the numbers in the firm suck. So therefore he has been pretty much forced to step-down, and he new it was coming...so for about a year he built a book. What a shame.

take a look at Jones or Ray James…they get all of their walkins because they generally are the only broker in the branch. I have heard alot of brokers cry about branch manager hogs.

lol...if you're worried about walkins, you don't need to be in this business.

btw, if you want walkins, go to the bank...unbelievablely good prospects just come in and ask..."so, i've retired, and i think i ned to do a rollover, so who do i talk to" 

it's sweet

I think managers could make a decent argument that they deserve walk-ins and inherited clients.  The BS that they put up with is unbelievable.  There is little or no time to prospect for their business.  If you looked at the salary that a producing manager earns you would laugh.  They have longer hours, more work, more stress, less pay, more risk to their license, and less job security.  And before anyone makes the post…no I’m not nor would I ever be management.

[quote=MWD123]I think managers could make a decent argument that they deserve walk-ins and inherited clients.  The BS that they put up with is unbelievable.  There is little or no time to prospect for their business.  If you looked at the salary that a producing manager earns you would laugh.  They have longer hours, more work, more stress, less pay, more risk to their license, and less job security.  And before anyone makes the post…no I’m not nor would I ever be management.[/quote]

Then why, I ask, does anyone with two brain cells to rub together take the job?

Management Stinks.  Advising is great.  Eventually advising
sicks.  Management looks great.  Stay with Advising. 
Management Sticks.

[quote=joedabrkr]

[quote=MWD123]I think managers could make a decent argument that they deserve walk-ins and inherited clients.  The BS that they put up with is unbelievable.  There is little or no time to prospect for their business.  If you looked at the salary that a producing manager earns you would laugh.  They have longer hours, more work, more stress, less pay, more risk to their license, and less job security.  And before anyone makes the post…no I’m not nor would I ever be management.[/quote]

Then why, I ask, does anyone with two brain cells to rub together take the job?
[/quote]

Hmm…then again, I guess that explains why most of the managers I met were useless intellectual lightweights.  Nice teeth, empty suits.

Is there even a concensus on what FA's are looking for in a manager?  Sounds like this thread believes a producing manager is better?  Is that because they help you grow your business more efficiently due to the fact that they're in the trenches as well?  Or is it just that producing managers are around less and therefore unable to give the underperformers the lashing they need?  How would the ideal manager act, and what's the biggest thing they could do for FA's?